Friday, December 18, 2009

Response to Questions About Education and Obsolescence

Ok, so why should I even bother going to school? If I can learn from my house what is the point? You think kids who don't do their homework in the first place are going to take advantage of the broken barriers between home and school? Socializing is more important to most high school students anyway. Teachers will NEVER become obsolete! We will always need those positive role models and leaders in our society. Why bother studying if I can just go to Wiki and look up anything I want? What's the point of learning everything we do in school and being tested on it later if I can access the same knowledge at anytime? Why educate doctors if anyone could diagnose you based on the symptoms wiki has to say?Do we seriously want a generation of kids who can't even print their own name on paper? This whole advancement in technology is sounding very scary to me. We can't operate our world with the touch of a button because what happens when that button fails, when the system has a glitch, when the satellite didn't receive necessary information, when we have lost data? Computers can't take the role of people because people are not programmed.I believe that technology has many incredible purposes and we should utilize some of them but when we start to become dependent or let it control the way we live I think we have a problem. For example, I probably used spell check 10 times in writing this, and what has that taught me? Using technology in a balanced way is the only way it should be used.

Signed... A concerned student

While I generally refrain from responding at any length to comments submitted anonymously, I do wish to take a closer look at this reponse point-by-point and respond in kind.

1. Ok, so why should I even bother going to school? If I can learn from my house what is the point?

The point is that that is the point.

You can learn from your house. Or on the light rail. Or at the library. Or in a restaurant. Or in line at the grocery store.

You can learn anywhere.

And you don't learn in school just because it's a school. In fact, as we all know, there's plenty of 'not learning' happening in school buildings.

As the decade wears on, students (and teachers) will have more choices. And we'll have ever more opportunities to be learners.

2. You think kids who don't do their homework in the first place are going to take advantage of the broken barriers between home and school?

We have to get away from the idea of 'homework' altogether.

We have to address the fact that reading a book for class does not necessarily make you 'learn' better than reading the website of your choice. Completing math problems in a textbook does not necessarily make you 'learn' better than playing an MMOG.

Teachers have an obligation not to dictate what content is best for their teaching, but what content is best for the learning of each student individually.

Sound difficult to pull off?

Well it is.

But that's the challenge.

3. Socializing is more important to most high school students anyway.

Yes. In fact, socializing is important to everyone regardless of age. We are social creatures.

Remember that old quote from Aristotle? Humans are political animals. Well, that's not really the best rendering of the Greek. What Aristotle really meant was: Humans are civic animals. We live in communities. We are inherently social.

That's exactly why social media is so powerful. Because it extends community beyond the borders of place and State.

What we are all learning now is that we can harness the power of these online communities to functionalize learning in ways Aristotle only could have dreamed of.

In the future -- if not now -- learning itself will be primarily a form of socializing. In a way, it always has been.

4. Teachers will NEVER become obsolete!

It's not really a matter of whether teachers will become obsolete; it's a matter of whether the institutions that currently support learning will become obsolete.

And they will.

Just as they did when the Academy was closed down. And when the abbeys were replaced by universities. And...

The point is that individual teachers will either adapt or die. That's a brutal fact of history.

5. Why bother studying if I can just go to Wiki and look up anything I want?

That's a great question. And I'll answer it in two ways.

First, ask yourself what your purpose in studying is. Are you trying to memorize facts for a test? Are you trying to build what teachers call your 'prior knowledge'? Or are you using the act of studying to further your skills of analysis and evaluation?

Given your answer to those three questions, there are a variety of reasons why you would want to go to the wiki.

The other way of answering: if your studying can be accomplished merely by looking something up on the wiki, then you are not really learning anyway. You, as a student, should either be demanding of your teachers or of yourself higher standards of intellectual discovery.

6. What's the point of learning everything we do in school and being tested on it later if I can access the same knowledge at anytime?

First, refer back to my answer to #5.

Then start to question the authority of the person assessing you in this way.

But don't do it rashly. Think it out. Think about what 'being tested' really means. And be honest with yourself about what your learning and understanding mean.

7. Why educate doctors if anyone could diagnose you based on the symptoms wiki has to say?

Sources like the Mayo Clinic online and Web MD aren't there for the education of doctors. They are there for the education of patients.

We are living in an age in which the resources are available for individuals to educate themselves about issues directly related to their lives.

That doesn't make everyone an expert. But it does make the society as a whole more accountable.

8. Do we seriously want a generation of kids who can't even print their own name on paper?

There's a good chance that we're currently raising the last generation in human history that will use paper.

9. This whole advancement in technology is sounding very scary to me.

Yes it is. Just as it always has been.

Travel back in time and ask the hunter-gatherers about it.

Sometimes the most important things are scary.

It's scary to graduate into a Recession-lined job pool. It's scary to have kids. It's scary to live on your own. It's scary to move to a new city.

That's life.

10. We can't operate our world with the touch of a button because what happens when that button fails, when the system has a glitch, when the satellite didn't receive necessary information, when we have lost data?

Systems have been failing long before the advent of digital technology. Read up on what happened to Harappan society. Read up on what happened to the ancient Mycenaeans. Read about the many 'Dark Ages' and periods of chaos and illiteracy that cloud great swathes of human history.

If anything, the multiplicity of culture and data in the current climate make that sort of doomsday scenario actually a little less likely.

That said, surely there will come a day when all of this changes. But it'll likely be a gradual change: more an evolution into something else than a sudden jolt. It won't come with the press of a button.

But who knows.

11. Computers can't take the role of people because people are not programmed.

There is an argument to be made that industrial/institutional schooling has been 'programming' people for generations.

12. I believe that technology has many incredible purposes and we should utilize some of them but when we start to become dependent or let it control the way we live I think we have a problem. For example, I probably used spell check 10 times in writing this, and what has that taught me? Using technology in a balanced way is the only way it should be used.

Technology has always influenced the way we live.

A campfire is technology. The wheel is technology. So is an MRI scanner. And a space telescope.

Technology lets us do things in new ways. And once we experience a new way -- or a better way -- of doing something, we tend to go with it. It's the process of innovation.

As for what spell check taught you, it matters little to me. Because what matters to me most is the fact that you were able to contact me with your ideas. What matters to me is that you sparked my thinking. And I appreciate your comment and the comments of so many of my readers for doing exactly that.

In a way, spell check didn't 'teach' you anything; rather, it just helped facilitate your ideas.

8 comments:

In an age when "Because, I said so." is the reason so often quoted to young people, it's refreshing that you've challenged us all to consider a whole range of historic references in response to what seem to be random rhetorical questions about the relevance of school.

That's what the best teachers do, prod you to further thinking, instead of directing you to the right answer(s).

Wow...what a great post. I think you addressed their concerns and comments perfectly and I think that this post could be used as a guide to changing education. We are truly changing from teaching facts and dates and memorizing formulas to teaching how to analyze and use the facts, dates, and formulas.

I have a hypothesis that, as technology takes care of basic tasks, we'll use our newly-free brainpower to do things we couldn't before. For example, using a calculator or spreadsheet to do basic calculations lets more people spend more time becoming experts on analyzing the data.

The pessimist view may be that everyone will spend the free time watching TV...but I think everyone has at least some motivation inside themselves to always be getting better and accomplishing more. That motivation will help prevent a world where technology allows us all to become outright stupid.

I have to disagree with one thing in your reply to the erstwhile young student - your tone. I happen to agree about a great many things that you said, but I think that you danced about the main thrust of his letter, the value of a good teacher.

Will/should teaching change in the future - yes. Will schools change in the future - let's hope so. But good teachers are good teachers since antiquity. It is not methodology, technology or facilities that make a good teacher - it is the ability to connect with students and give them a reason to learn and then put that learning into context for or with the student. Good teachers care, they relate, they inspire and cajole. They get students to work harder than they thought they could. That is not easy to do in isolation.

Students need teachers more than they need instruction. Instruction can be provided by a computer or a video and even a book. But it can not teach. Teaching is a whole lot more than providing information. So, I agree with the young man, there will always be a need for teachers.

Wow. I am at loss for words. I have just started reading your last couple of blog posts, and I am going to refer to some of your thoughts when I am talking to parents, students and teachers about how education and the world is changing. We can either be on board with that and be as prepared as possible, or we can be like segments of society from generations past that tried to hold on to everything as they knew it. This was a great read. Thanks for sharing.

I agree wholeheartedly with teachj's comments, but one thought comes to mind. I regularly meet teachers and take part in training sessions where the focus is on transferable skills rather than on facts. That's a good thing, but often these same teachers drastically over-estimate the ability of children to identify what they need to know. A lot of Self-Organised-Learning (SOL) falls apart because of this.

For example, teaching social responsibility is much easier (and more effective) if the learner has a grounding in history. In such a situation you need the teacher as a source of input. Playing the role of facilitator is simply not efficient.

Equally, learning a foreign language is extremely difficult for an adult without a teacher as a resource and for input. To expect a child to achieve any meaningful results without the "facts" coming from the teacher is supremely optimistic.

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